PC died, but I salvaged the hard Drive and my data

Greg,

                Of course. I hope the following information helps. The old drive is now a just stand-alone hard drive connected when required by USB. I have copied across all my documents etc. to my new PC but not programs. I retrieved my Elements back-up file and I restored my folders from the .tly file on the old drive via USB to my new PC as I think you correctly surmised. Of course the folder I was working on is no longer in Elements as it was not backed up to Elements.

I do all my file manipulations (if I need to renumber a file etc.) from within Elements so the changes are saved to elements (as my crops mentioned before testify this seems to have worked). I was not aware of Crl+W. I was hoping that there would be a file somewhere with the meta data tags I could reconnect to the files as Elements would have if my PC hadn’t failed. Before the failure the folder showed fine with all tags/metadata saved. I’ve imported a new files but have not seen an offer to save keywords. Pre-back up keywords look like they are all here but as expected none of the name or place tags post back up were transferred.

I will do a search for the file extensions sidecar.xmp you mentioned previously on my old drive although I don’t think I work wit raw files just .JPG’s, but it’s easy to check.

Appreciate your help and thoughts

Richard

Sorry, but we need more information.  So, as I understand it, you have a new PC and have restored an out-of-date catalog backup.  Since the date of your last backup, you were working on the catalog (on your old computer) adding keyword, People, Events and Places tags.  So, I have the following questions:

Did you simply transfer the hard drive to the new computer, and if so, does it have the same drive letter and folder structure as before?  (And is it your system C-drive or a different drive or partition?)

For files that have been tagged post-backup, did you routinely save metadata to file (e.g. using Ctrl+W).  If not, the metadata will only be saved (automatically) if you edited and saved the file in the Editor (and probably using the Organizer's Instant Fix - but I'm not sure about that.)

Do you have any files that were imported post-backup?  If so, when you import them into the catalog, you are given the opportunity to import the saved keywords.  Have you done that? 

Greg,

Thanks for your prompt response, I’m looking for the associated metadata tags of who was in the picture, the location, event etc. that I lost, when my PC just stopped working, from the folder that hadn’t yet been backed up. The individual files on the folder I was working through all have their correct date stamps and the couple of pictures I had cropped out from and saved as extra files are there, so I’m pretty sure the pictures are up to date, just not linked to the metadata as they are outside of Elements now. I would like to reunite with their tags if possible, it would save several evenings of work! A salutatory reminder that regular back ups are more than a good idea.

Elements 2020, Windows 11

Thanks

Richard

What kind of data are you looking for?  Tags, face recognition, albums etc?  If you saved the metadata to the file, some of the data will still be available.  Or are you talking about edits to raw files?  Those are contained in sidecar .xmp files which you were presumably able to restore.